Texas’ total revenue in 2010-2011 was $150,295,926. Akron, which competes in the MAC and is coached by former Auburn coach Terry Bowden, brought in $25,583,730 over the same time span.

Both are FBS programs.

While conference realignment and BCS postseason models have dominated this year’s offseason, the fact that a tremendous gulf separates most in major conferences from those on the outside remains a prevalent issue in athletics.

USA Today’s study of college athletic finances showed that nine programs made more than $100 million—Texas, Ohio State, Alabama, Florida, Michigan, Penn State, LSU, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Auburn. With the exception of LSU, they were also among the 10 biggest spenders, with Wisconsin cracking into the big spender lineup.

In a Sporting News survey of more than three dozen FBS coaches, 58 percent said they believe that within 10 years, "superconferences" will break away from the NCAA. While that might be a long-term forecast, a division between the haves and have nots could come much sooner in football.

“We may get to a point—I want to underline the word ‘may’—where many schools are really not in a position to compete at the level of the Floridas and the Notre Dames and Texases and the USCs,” Texas president William Powers told USA Today. “Like any competitive business, being in it and not really being in the game, you can get hurt.

“Will there be some restructuring? I am not a fan of some national league, but we may end up with 50 schools in (the upper football division of the NCAA’s) Division I.”

“To compete at the real D-I level, I don’t think, will take what we have in our budget,” Powers told the newspaper. “But it will take a certain level (of wherewithal).”

By BCS conference, the schools that showed the greatest revenue growth from 2006-2011 were Texas (53.7 percent), Ohio State (25.9), Alabama (84), Louisville (69.7), Oregon (89.9) and Florida State (17.3). According to USA Today, only 22 of the top 100 schools made a profit in 2011.